America’s Immaturity is Showing

I used to compare the United States to a teenager. It doesn’t have much patience, is not always able to see the long view, can be loud and obnoxious, and is trying to create its own identity in a world that has established its own order. It’s not easy being a teenager. America also has a 5 life path which seeks and craves change and progress. Teenagers don’t like to go backwards. They are forward-thinking people for better or for worse. The latest school shooting in Florida has brought out this group of citizens and they don’t have the patience to wait any longer for gun control in America. They are a force in the United States and they cannot be underestimated. They are not going away and their group has caught fire. The NRA and the political figures who are sponsored by the NRA should be uncomfortable. Teenagers won’t be ignored. Teenagers grow up and vote and are experts with social media.

The United States is in the phase similar to a teenager. It is trying to become a civilized country. It is trying to become an adult but it is still acting theatrical and immature. George Friedman, the well-known geopolitical expert speaks of the stages of development of a country. He states that a country grows from stage 1, barbarism, 2, civilization and stage 3, decadence. These are similar to the stages of human development “Indolence, adulthood and old age”. The United States is in between barbarism and civilized. Certainly it shows in how it conducts itself on the world stage. Friedman states that “emotions and ideals drive behavior of young, barbaric countries; sometimes in irrational ways. Indifference–belief that nothing is better than anything else and, therefore, does not merit fight, drives behavior of old, decadent countries. Between barbarism and decadence is civilization where a state and its people manage to balance the passion of ideals with a skepticism of reality. No. America, including Canada, the United States and Mexico are on the opposite ends.

These 3 nations are quite young, less than 250 years old and walking the fine line between barbarism and civilization. All three countries were colonies and are trying to create their own identities and carve out their own place in the older established world order–just as a teenager would do.

This NAFTA agreement, the my way or the highway idea of trade, the soon to be dangerous tariffs placed on steel and aluminum by executive order point to an immature leader representing a country that has not reached its own civilization. The fact that all of these trade arrangements are not coming from a popular referendum or a meeting of the minds but from an executive order reflect this immaturity. The US threatens to withdraw unilaterally from agreements and trade deals despite legal consequences. Basically, it looks as if all sides are trying to intimidate each other. All of these talks with China, Canada and Mexico are theatrical but reflect an inexperience and immaturity of the countries involved rather than the uncertainty of the agreement. Particularly in the case of NAFTA. I highly recommend George Friedman’s work www.geopoliticalfutures.com.

America, when she is ready to be more mature, will choose a more mature leader, will create negotiations that are orderly, well-crafted, civil and in a timely matter. America’s current leader and supporters of this leader reflect an aggressive, hostile and an ideology that is keeping with the behavior of young nations. As hard as it might be to digest the fact that America is transitioning from barbarism to civilization, she is not fully assimilated in the world order of civilizations. She is young, she is brash and she is still trying to carve out her place. Certainly, the behavior of today and the desire to turn back the clock to a period of the 1950′s is reminiscent of the teenager who occasionally wants to go back to childhood where tantrums got you attention. They also got you sent to your room for time-outs.

11 Responses to “America’s Immaturity is Showing”

The deeper point is accepting where we are as individuals and in turn see how our collective individualism has effected our voting decisions. We are brash, advanced, generous, selfish and also falling behind in self care. I see in our president an overt concern for what others think and the urge to control.
No one like to be controlled, especially this administration. If our nation is maturing then the flip-flopping of humanitarian/selfish qualities is a natural swing of the pendulum in search or equilibrium. As a country we have a role to play out of thousands of other players, all human. We are now interconnected. Perhaps its time to accept who we are; the cycles we’ve lived and accept that this coming generation has a lot to teach us. Teenagers learn about themselves and assimilate their knowledge to turn outward engaging with the world. My hope for this generation is for them to be self connected hungry and caring people weighing the scales towards civilization and outweighing barbarism. The US has led the way in countless areas, lets continue.

Love this and the “Time outs”…wow, now if only we could go back and visualize who we were as juveniles and honor how far we as individuals have come then possibly when it comes to elections we can see from where we came and where we are at this moment. Choosing the now as always is the grown up thing to do. Growing pains are opportunities to evolve as homo sapiens were intended.

I am very concerned for our democracy for multiple reasons. The scales have now tipped dramatically in favor or the top 1% of wealthiest Americans and corporate tax breaks (even for some businesses, who paid zero taxes). The Republicans can no longer be called conservative when they made a conscious decision to give corporations and the wealthiest Americans the lion’s share of the tax cuts and promised that it would trickle down to everyone else, but as we all know from the past, trickle down doesn’t work. Polls show the tax bill is very unpopular with many Americans, and will weigh heavily in Midterms (unless, of course, the Russians tamper with our elections again; recently both directors of NSA and FBI said they have not personally had any directives from Trump to enforce Russian sanctions, as well as protect voters in future elections, which were overwhelming voted in last fall in a bi-partisan bill 419-3).

Parkland mass shooting was a turning point, and I also believe will be a force to be reckoned with now, and in future elections. Thank God! The 2nd Amendment forefathers of our constitution would be turning over in their graves had they had any inkling of assault weapons of war being legally sold and used in the slaughtering of our children in schools, as well as people attending movies, concerts and public places where Americans should be safe. No other country has this problem and those that did dealt with it swiftly. As Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State in Bush administration said this past week, “It is time Americans questioned what the right to bear arms means in the modern world…I don’t understand why civilians need to have access to military weapons. We wouldn’t say you can go out and buy a tank….I don’t think that just arming people in the classroom is going to be the answer either….”

Thank you for another excellent blog, Gail! You bring a perspective that is important and timely.

For one to accurately compare the USA to the 193 other countries in the world and to offer a credible, persuasive and “mature” assessment of relative strengths and weaknesses would seem to require traveling to and actually experiencing the cultures of many other countries including “mature” ones in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North & South Asia. That, plus a thorough reading of world history suggests that the USA stands remarkably tall on most measures. Meanwhile, most of the inhabitants on this planet continue to mature and develop, supported by the resources, generosity and goodwill of a few “immature” countries…like the USA.

In my humble opinion what we see is a Nation evolving and like all nations from whence we came the next step is a Nation Church. We need to recommit ourselves to Our Declaration of Independence. Separation of Church and State does not exist and Social Work and become the responsibility of The Justice Department thus I am advocating the creation of the Cabinet Post….The Office of The Poet and have The Attorney General report to it. The appointed would be made the Vice President who would be elected by popular vote with no party affiliation.

America is a business. Our current leader is one of history’s greatest businessmen. He loves his country and wants nothing but the best for his country. Whatever point in the life cycle we are in now can only be enhanced by his brilliance. No other President in our history has the heart and business acumen.
Compared to all the others in my lifetime, Eisenhower is the only other who’s accomplished as much as our current CIC.

I have been around for 75 years, and I’m not sure that a nation can “return” to something it really never was. There certainly has been talk in past years, pointing out the civility and morality of these “United States”, but in my opinion most of the talk has been tongue in cheek. There has been a less than honest conversation about what we are. If we look at the genocide and elimination of species that has occurred in our past in the name of progress, the degradation of the environment, we have not done well as a nation.

PS: I think it would certainly be nice to see a return to celebrating America, the American culture, values, personal responsibility and morality. Right now, the pendulum has swung way too far toward hedonism, in my opinion.